Online gambling is just one of several potentially risky industries and activities (in a legal sense) that Google wants to exclude from its new Google Cast project – an iOS and Android technology bridging app that enables big-screen hardware to connect to the internet through smart phones and tablets.
It’s clear from a warning issued with the software kit for developers that comes with the product that Google will not tolerate the inclusion of any undesirable material in apps designed for use with Google Cast…and that specifically includes gambling, copyright infringement, porn, drugs, fraudulent activity and so on…it seems to be a pretty wide field of exclusion.
It’s perhaps understandable that the media giant is nervous about the possibility of undesirable or legally risky apps being channelled through its new initiative; it is therefore taking a cautious approach in the new venture to avoid becoming embroiled in legal clashes at jurisdictional level over apps furnished through intermediaries over whom it has little direct content control.
The advisory to developers strongly implies that Google will not hesitate to wield its considerable and wide-reaching commercial power to ensure that the publication or transmission of content it considers inappropriate is not channelled through Google Cast.